The Principals at Voltage Optics seek collaborative relationships with other small businesses and other companies through:

• Contract employment and consulting
• Joint SBIR/STTR proposal development
• Subcontracting
• Strategic partnerships
• Other venues of cooperation

Expertise includes:

• Research and development of novel sensors and sensor systems
• Physics based model development, simulation, modeling, and analysis
• proof-of-concepts
• complex systems
• electro-optics, energy, nuclear radiation effects, hypervelocity
• novel physics based tools and applications
• Disciplines
• physical optics, lasers, optical sensors and seekers
• missile defense and space applications
• nuclear weapons effects on optics
• hypervelocity
• other areas of physics, optics, and engineering

Solar blind optical communications experiment.

Recent experience includes:

• Electro-optical sensor development for missile defense applications
• sensor team leadership
• interfacing with systems and other design teams
• preliminary sensor design / concept development
• analysis for trade studies - telescope, waveband, focal plane
• nuclear radiation effects on space optics
• threat signature analysis
• Hypervelocity impact probe development
• lead internally funded research and development (IRAD) team
• theory development
• conceptual design, modeling, analysis
• design & conduct successful proof-of-concept experiments

• Air-launched missile defense development
• seeker team lead
• sensor / seeker design & analysis
• threat signature development & analysis
• Proposal team member - two high powered laser proposals
• model development & analysis
• contributed to development of technical and cost portions of proposal
• Nuclear electro-magnetic pulse
• sensor development for potential electrical industry needs
• preliminary sensor design
• proof-of-concept experiments

Synthetic imaging experiment using novel fringe scanning method.

Please contact:

Bio of Thomas M Crawford

Thomas M. Crawford is an optical physicist and sensor/systems engineer. During Tom's 38 year career, he has researched and developed various laser, optical, and electro-optical sensors and instruments.

Tom is the co-owner and a principal investigator for Voltage Optics. Voltage Optics is pursuing research and development of novel sensors and systems, physics based modeling, and consulting and contract employment opportunities.

As an engineer for a large government contractor, Tom serves as the seeker/sensor lead for a missile defense effort. He is also sensor lead on another smaller pre-proposal missile effort which will fly in both the upper atmosphere and into low exo-atmospheric space. Tom has served as both sensor systems team lead and as a technical contributor on several other space related programs. Tom performs much of the sensor subsystem trade analysis for these efforts. His interdisciplinary background allows him to interface well with other engineers from Systems, Guidance, Propulsion, Opto-Mech, and other fields. Tom routinely develops physics based models to conduct threat signature analysis, radiometry, electro-optic sensor design, and plume-to-hardbody and discrimination analysis. He also uses his physics background to model trajectories and orbits, to calculate aero-thermal heating effects on domes and other surfaces, hypervelocity collisions, and nuclear radiation effects on optics.

Prior to his current position, Tom owned a previous business and also held positions at a DOE laboratory, a NASA laboratory, 2 private companies, and a university.

Tom holds BS & MS degrees in Physics, and has completed all but his dissertation requirements for a PhD in Optical Physics. Tom holds 9 patents, 7 pending patents, and several trade secrets related to missile defense, hypervelocity collision characterization, electro-optical high voltage sensing, electro-optical chemical sniffing, and ultra-high reflectance mirror characterization. Tom was awarded the 1998 R&D 100 Award by Research and Development Magazine for the electro-optic high voltage sensor mentioned above.

For a detailed resume, see here. Other additional information can be made available to certain potential customers.